Despite being a coastal city, Chennai is woefully short of good seafood restaurants. For tasty grills, you have to drive down to Mahabalipuram, a temple town 40km away. But much like how the seafood grills from Goan beaches are poles apart from the seafood preparations at home, the grills from Mahabalipuram rarely represent the actual flavours of the south. Like how our humble Milagu Thanni—which is nothing but a soup made of pepper water that has served for ages as a home remedy for cold—was turned into the fashionable Mulligatawny by the British.
In a revival of sorts, Chennai restaurants are reclaiming their heritage. Like Avartana in ITC Grand Chola, which has made trendy the humble South Indian dishes. And Sea Salt, a brand-new seafood restaurant that cooks with the fresh catch of the day using recipes collected from fisher-folk.
Thanks to social media, some of us have discovered what the locals have been eating for centuries. Sundari Akka Kadai, a humble seaside hawker, became the talk of the town after TV channels popularised her food. The fame died down, but she still does brisk business.
The Amma Chettinad Restaurant, run by the family of the legendary MGR’s personal chef, doles out excellent food without any fancy plating. You get great dosas, biriyanis and kola urundais, a kind of keema balls, with crab gravy. The Kovai Alankar Mess in Anna Nagar is a great place to get Kongu food. Though the place is small and cannot boast of any legendary cook, the food is as good as it gets.
If you are willing to travel around 250km, do not miss the legendary Puthur Jayaram Hotel in Sirkazhi. There are no menus there. Its prawn thokku is probably what caused its rise to fame, although the homemade curds, the fish, the simple gravies and side dishes are no less magnificent.
Dr Wasim is a food writer